Disturbing the Minotaur

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“Caves behind waterfalls are supposed to contain treasure! Everyone knows that!” Gadamir protested, brandishing his torch.

“Maybe there’s a secret lever or something.” Sir Tinnar suggested, tapping along the walls of the seemingly final chamber.

Gadamir pointed. “Look, running water! I think something’s behind this wall.”

Sir Tinnar nodded. Then, he reared back, and plunged forward with his warhammer, striking the wall with enough blunt force that the ground beneath them gave way, sending them tumbling down into a dark abyss.

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Dozens of kittens implicated in the world's most adorable heist

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The heist had apparently been organized by dozens of smol kitty-kats, most likely a multi-litter coalition, in a devious scheme to vandalize the centerpiece of the museum’s Modern Sculpture exhibit. According to police chief Dick Nickson, “this is exactly the rise in crime that cities all over America are facing today.” Nickson showed us police sketches of the suspects, including the orange cat that distracted Lollicino, which everyone at the station had taken to calling Wuggles. “We need to protect our hard-working American families from these criminal scum,” Nickson added while stabbing his finger at the precious snoot on one of their fuzzy faces. Nickson added, “These hoodlums cannot get away with blatantly disrespecting the paw—sorry, law.”

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Student Cars Shabbier than Ever

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“I admittedly have to add a bunch of lead to the gas tank in order to get out of my parking spot,” said Gavin, 20, “but it makes sense to use fossil fuels for such a fossil car—” Gavin was then cut off from speaking by the guttural sounds coming from his Geo Metro, whose muffler had fallen off months ago.

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3 Scientific Benefits of Weight Loss that aren’t Looking Good

When researchers ask people why they want to lose weight, perhaps the most common answer is that they want to improve their health (e.g., O’Brien et al., 2007). This is a great pattern to see! People who are, instead, primarily motivated by “looking good” tend to have less autonomous motivation in their attempt(s) to lose weight, meaning that long-term persistence in their weight loss journey is less likely (Teixeira et al., 2012).

weightlosscucumber

The lesson here is clear: if you want to succeed in losing weight, it is a good idea to focus on your own personal improvement rather than what other people think of you. So today, let’s focus on 3 reasons — with scientific evidence! — that a person’s health improves after losing weight.

Reduced Cancer Risk

When a person develops cancerous growths in their body, what has typically happened is a transcription error at the level of their genetic material. Usually, a person’s DNA replication and other transcription systems excel at catching such transcription errors and correcting them before cancer can develop as a result. However, a mistake slips through every once in a while, resulting in mutant molecules (e.g., proteins) in a process called “transcriptional mutagenesis” (Brégeon & Doetsch, 2011). These mutants can promote the growth of cancerous cells.

One theoretical reason why weighing more, especially being obese, increases the risk of cancer is that when your body weighs more, it contains more cells that are transcribing genetic information. Therefore, more transcription errors slip by undetected.

However, this increase in transcription mutagenesis only explains the existence of cancer in the body in the first place. Obesity also promotes cancer once it exists in the body. The mechanisms by which it accomplishes this are not well understood, but involve inflammation and hormone balances that somehow encourage the growth of the cancer (Vucenik & Stains, 2012). Weight loss seems to cut down on the risks significantly, at least for certain cancers such as prostate and breast.

Improved Sleep

The amount of time that a person spends sleeping at night has a direct relationship to how much they weigh. If a person wants to get enough sleep, it is beneficial for them to weigh a healthy amount. Interestingly, this relationship seems to go both ways, such that a person who gets better sleep is less likely to be obese, and a person who is less obese is more likely to get better sleep. Some specific examples include longer sleep durations when a person has lower Body Mass Index (BMI), and an increased likelihood of being obese if they get insufficient sleep — defined as less than 6 hours per night (Beccuti & Pannain, 2011).

One reason for this relationship between weight and sleep has to do with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA occurs when a person’s airflow is disrupted during sleep, often due to throat muscles constricting. This leads to loss of sleep quality as well as snoring in some people. One big reason why OSA is so disruptive to sleep is that it reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood, which forces your brain to wake you up briefly in order to fix your breathing. These brief awakening are frequently not remembered by the sleeper, but they lead to drowsiness the next day.

Obesity seems to increase the risk of OSA thanks to greater breathing obstructions , and OSA seems to increase the risk of obesity thanks to drowsiness leading to less energy expenditure following the sleeping period (Beccuti & Pannain, 2011).

A study that followed people who had lost weight found that losing greater than 5% of a person’s body weight was associated with short-term improvements in sleep duration and sleep quality (Alfaris et al., 2015). In other words, losing a few pounds can lead not only to longer nights of sleep, but to more restful sleep as well.

Better Memory

Negative old-age memory outcomes, including the development of Alzheimer’s disease, are associated with obesity in middle age. Fortunately, weight loss in obese people has been shown across multiple studies to improve cognitive function, including memory (Siervo et al., 2011).

There are at least two mechanisms by which this improvement in memory occurs. The first is at the level of the blood vessels, where vascular function, especially that of delivering oxygenated blood to the brain, improves with weight loss thanks to a reduction in fatty tissues and inflammation. The second is at the level of a person’s metabolism, where the brain is able to better function thanks to modifications in hormone release, such as insulin, after weight loss (Siervo et al., 2011).

Interestingly, weight reduction surgery has also been shown to lead to improved memory. Obese people who underwent bariatric surgery showed long-term improvements on memory tests following their weight-loss-inducing surgeries (Alosco et al., 2014).

But extreme interventions like surgery may not be needed, as nutrition changes by themselves are also associated with positive memory effects, such that eating an appropriate diet can increase cognitive performance (Siervo et al., 2011). Another straightforward ways to improve memory and lose weight at the same time is, of course, regular exercise.

References

Alfaris, N., Wadden, T. A., Sarwer, D. B., Diwald, L., Volger, S., Hong, P., … & Chittams, J. (2015). Effects of a 2‐year behavioral weight loss intervention on sleep and mood in obese individuals treated in primary care practice. Obesity, 23(3), 558–564.

Alosco, M. L., Spitznagel, M. B., Strain, G., Devlin, M., Cohen, R., Paul, R., … & Gunstad, J. (2014). Improved memory function two years after bariatric surgery. Obesity, 22(1), 32–38.

Beccuti, G., & Pannain, S. (2011). Sleep and obesity. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, 14(4), 402–412.

Brégeon, D., & Doetsch, P. W. (2011). Transcriptional mutagenesis: Causes and involvement in tumour development. Nature Reviews Cancer, 11(3), 218–227.

O’Brien, K., Venn, B. J., Perry, T., Green, T. J., Aitken, W., & Bradshaw, A. (2007). Reasons for wanting to lose weight: Different strokes for different folks. Eating Behaviors, 8(1), 132–135.

Siervo, M., Arnold, R., Wells, J. C. K., Tagliabue, A., Colantuoni, A., Albanese, E., … & Stephan, B. C. M. (2011). Intentional weight loss in overweight and obese individuals and cognitive function: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Obesity Reviews, 12(11), 968–983.

Teixeira, P. J., Silva, M. N., Mata, J., Palmeira, A. L., & Markland, D. (2012). Motivation, self-determination, and long-term weight control. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9(1), 22.

Vucenik, I., & Stains, J. P. (2012). Obesity and cancer risk: Evidence, mechanisms, and recommendations. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1271(1), 37.

Extreme Dieting is Trendy, Effective, and Dangerous, not Necessarily in that Order

The main character of the movie “The Martian” is forced to eat only potatoes while trapped on Mars. That’s just science fiction, but here on Earth, this is the latest fad diet.

Nutritionists warn against trying the potato-only mono-diet, but some are tempted to try this extreme feat.

Nutritionists warn against trying the potato-only mono-diet, but some are tempted to try this extreme feat.


The Potato Diet: High Profile Weight Loss on Low-Calorie Dieting

Recent statistics make it clear that people are desperate to lose weight.

According to a 2017 study, the percentage of adults worldwide that had attempted weight loss in the previous 12 months was 41.5 percent.

Driven to shed pounds, people may become desperate enough to try extreme dieting. These extreme diets come in many forms, some of you may remember the cabbage soup diet or the grapefruit diet.

New diets continue to appear; currently hot is the idea of the mono-diet. Mono-dieting gets its name from the word “mono” meaning “one single thing” as in monogamy, monorail, or monocle. In this diet, the “mono” is a food item: one single food item repeatedly eaten for an extended period. Mono-diet books and YouTube channels promoting extremely restrictive diets continue to reach new audiences fascinated by the promise of quick weight loss and better health. The most common choice for this diet? The potato.

Potato mono-diets have enjoyed some publicity thanks to high profile eating stunts and celebrity involvement.

In 2010, a marketing effort by Chris Voigt, a member of the Washington State Potatoes Commission, involved eating only potatoes for two months. He did this to promote the nutritional value of the potato. Voigt’s blog from 2010 noted that “I don’t want people to think of this as a weight loss diet. It is not, and it’s not something I want people to replicate.”

Penn Jillette, a Las Vegas magician and celebrity, lost over 100 pounds using a potato mono-diet in 2016. He began the diet with two weeks of nothing but unseasoned, whole potatoes. During those two weeks, he lost one pound per day. He has maintained the weight loss since then but is no longer eating only potatoes.

In 2015, Andrew Taylor ate virtually nothing but potatoes for an entire year and lost around 115 pounds. He became famous on the internet as the “Spud Fit” guy.

But is a potato-only diet really the weight-loss miracle it claims to be?

Ruth Litchfield, an Iowa State professor of food science with a Ph.D. in nutritional science, works as a Nutrition Extension State Specialist and finds herself worried by dieting trends. When advising someone interested in a mono-diet, she asks them “Why do you think there are so many diets out there? Because none of them work long-term.”

“Whatever it takes to lose the weight is the same thing it takes to keep it off. It’s not like you diet for 12 weeks and you’re cured for the rest of your life,” Litchfield said.

So, before being convinced to eat countless sacks of potatoes, let’s recheck some health facts. There are two main concerns with a potato-only mono-diet: lack of nutrients and lack of calories.

What Happens to the Body Without Key Nutrients

The potato contains many essential nutrients, but not all of them. A nutrient is something that the body requires to maintain life. Without nutrients, certain functions in your body can’t happen. Lack of vitamin B12 may lead to difficulties in walking and memory loss. Lack of vitamin A leads to vision problems. The potato lacks these and other key nutrients.

In the very short-term, your body won’t notice a reduction of nutrients in your food. But in the long-term?

“You can survive on some really crazy stuff for a long period of time, but would it be your best body and best mind? No,” said Alison St. Germain, a registered dietitian and a licensed dietitian at Iowa State University. She works as a dietetic internship instructor and clinician.

In each of the weight-loss cases outlined above, the person on the potato-only diet eventually supplemented the diet with non-potato items which alleviated the nutrient problem.

Voigt consumed at least 20 non-potato items during his potato-only diet, including cocoa powder, olive oil, and hot sauces. Jillette added in things such as beans and salads after two weeks. “Spud Fit” Taylor added soy milk and took a vitamin supplement. It is important to note that: none of the potato-only diets of the individuals mentioned above contained only potatoes long-term.

Headlines proclaiming “Only Potatoes” do not provide the whole picture and often omit the fine print about nutrition.

How the Body Suffers Without Calories

When weight loss occurs because of the potato diet, it is because the body is taking in fewer calories than it is putting out. This is called a calorie deficit. When small calorie deficits are slowly introduced and maintained carefully, this can be an excellent way of improving health. For example, permanently reducing the amount of sugar added to your coffee is a minor change that you can maintain over time in order to reduce calories.

Small calorie deficits lead to weight loss and positive effects. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website (cdc.gov), calorie deficits that lead to weight loss of one or two pounds per week are safe. When done quickly during extreme mono-diets, however, such as when Jillette lost nearly one pound per day, there can be negative consequences.

In a perfect world, the body would make up any extreme calorie deficit by burning the fat that people want to lose. But this isn’t what happens. When your body doesn’t have the calories it needs to run all of the machinery in your body, things begin shutting down.

“Fasting or very restrictive dieting can induce stress responses,” Litchfield said, “Impaired mental and physical abilities are going to result from that.”

This stress causes several functions in the body to slow down in order to conserve energy, including immune responses. As a result, people who restrict their calorie intake may be more likely to get sick, although a causal link between these two things has only been shown in animals thus far. A study published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine in 2016 found that mice with a restricted calorie diet had extremely weakened immune systems.

Also of concern is the effect that caloric restriction has on metabolism. Metabolism is the process by which your body converts food into energy. When a person participates in an extreme diet, energy conversion slows down. Importantly, this change to the metabolism, called metabolic adaptation, doesn’t disappear once the diet is complete. A study publishedin the journal Obesity in 2016 found that metabolic adaptation still existed years after an extreme weight loss plan had been followed.

To prevent these negative effects and stress responses, caloric restriction must be small and introduced slowly. This slow introduction allows the body to acclimate to this new environment. A useful metaphor for this slow change in environment can be seen in scuba diving.

When a scuba diver is deep underwater, she cannot simply rise to the surface without risking injury to her body. If she tries to swim directly to the surface as quickly as possible, she is at risk of something called “the bends” that occurs when the body cannot adapt to the pressure change quickly enough. The bends can cause damage to the body, but a simple way to prevent this is by surfacing slowly.

When attempting weight loss, your body is in a similar situation. To get to safety while minimizing risk, you need to surface slowly.

How to Not Starve and Still Get Healthy

While the potato mono-diet may be appealing because it seems like a quick fix, the potential long-term health consequences make this diet of solo spuds a total dud. According to St. Germain, there are other ways to find a healthier you.

The focus that people place on losing weight when trying to become healthier is sometimes called the “weight-centered paradigm.” However, becoming healthier is not necessarily equal to losing weight. St. Germain recommends a “health-centered paradigm” in which small behavioral changes add up long-term to produce a healthier person.

Adding exercise, eating additional varieties of nutritious foods, and removing unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, contribute towards a healthier person regardless of weight.

For someone who is interested in resetting their relationship with food, such as “Spud Fit” Taylor was when he began his mono-diet, there are less dramatic options. A technique known as intuitive eating asks people to listen to the hunger signals from their bodies when deciding when to eat and when to stop eating. Keeping a food journal allows a person to remember how much they are consuming and allows adjustments.

Lastly, the final word should be given to those who have tried potato mono-diets.

Jillette said in a video where he promoted a book written about his weight loss that “If you take medical advice from a Las Vegas magician, you are an idiot who deserves to die. You have to do this for yourself and with your proper medical professionals.” Taylor was quoted in an article by Today saying that “This is not something I started to try to promote it to anyone else, it’s just an experiment I’ve done for myself.”

The advice of those who have tried this potato mono-diet? Do not try the potato mono-diet.

References

Fothergill, E., Guo, J., Howard, L., Kerns, J. C., Knuth, N. D., Brychta, R., … & Hall, K. D. (2016). Persistent metabolic adaptation six years after “The Biggest Loser” competition. Obesity, 24(8), 1612–1619.

Santos, I., Sniehotta, F. F., Marques, M. M., Carraça, E. V., & Teixeira, P. J. (2017). Prevalence of personal weight control attempts in adults: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Obesity Reviews, 18(1), 32–50.

Tang, D., Tao, S., Chen, Z., Koliesnik, I. O., Calmes, P. G., Hoerr, V., … & Morita, Y. (2016). Dietary restriction improves repopulation but impairs lymphoid differentiation capacity of hematopoietic stem cells in early aging. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 213(4), 535–553.

5 inspiring autobiographies from people with brain damage

I frequently read biographies and case studies where people lose something dear. If you judge these books by their covers, you may presume them to be depressing. But if you read the right ones, they are quite inspiring, as stories of overcoming hardships.

I find reading these true stories useful for keeping my life and health in perspective. One area of books I am drawn to are those written (or co-written) by people who have experienced brain damage. The details of hardship in these books make me appreciate all of things that my brain does for me without me realizing it. Thank you, brain. Here are five of them that I recommend to anyone with a brain.

brain_damage_bio.png

1) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

This book was written by Jean-Dominique Bauby, transcribed by Claude Mendibil, and the English version that I read was translated by Jeremy Leggatt. I mention the transcribe and the translator not just because they deserve credit, but because Bauby wrote this book under extreme circumstances.

Originally written in French, this book was written by a man with locked-in syndrome, who communicated the entire book by eye blinks. Bauby, who was a writer for a fashion magazine, suffered an accident which left him almost entirely paralyzed. His transcriber (to whom he refers as “Claude”) patiently sat with him and read aloud letters until Bauby selected one by blinking, wrote it down, and then repeated this process. My favorite chapter of the book is the one in which Bauby describes this process, a chapter called “The Alphabet”

This book is not inspiring because Bauby overcame his illness. He did not, in fact, recover, as most people with locked-in syndrome do not. As explained on the inside flap of the cover of the book, Bauby died just two days after the French publication of this book. Instead, this book is inspiring because he was able to write the book in the first place.

At times it is profound, such as when attempts to describe his memories from before the accident and they come out “gray, muted, resigned…”

At times it is emotional, such as when he describes his relationship with his wheelchair as “a life sentence”, and the way that he can only wear clothing when someone chooses to put it onto him.

At times it is sensational, by which I mean tapping into the human senses of hunger. You’ll feel the pain when he describes his inability to eat and enjoy food, and the hearing disorder that makes him extra sensitive to the hospital noises outside of his room when someone forgets to shut his door after visiting (a problem he cannot remedy until another visitor shows up to close it).

Overall, this short book is worth reading over the course of an evening, just to dwell in the brilliant mind of someone who couldn’t escape.

2) The Ghost in my Brain

This book was written by Clark Elliot, PhD. He was in a car accident where he was hit from behind, resulting in a severe concussion. He did not, however, understand the severity of the brain damage that resulted from this crash until later. In fact, he gave a lecture at his university the same day following the crash. He delayed seeking medical help because the very act of the concussion had stolen his ability to understand what was wrong with him.

The greatest aspect of this book is they way that Dr. Elliot describes the events as they unfolded, with numerous examples of specific scenes and behaviors. He describes these in such a way that are extremely helpful for putting the reader into his shoes. His shares his own frustration with himself, for example, for the mistakes and problematic situations that he was getting himself into because of the concussion. The most notable example is nearly freezing to death in the opening chapter called “Midnight”, but I won’t spoil that scene for you.

Dr. Elliot had a long list of symptoms that began to appear. He began having memory problems, perceptual problems (such as failing to understand which objects he was looking at), and executive function problems such as issues with decision-making and initiating actions.

There is a passage in this book called “The Mystery of Choice” that sticks with me every time I try to make a decision. Dr. Elliot is hungry, and needs to eat some food. That sounds simple enough, but the real problem came when he needed to decide what to eat. He had placed two options in front of him: an apple and some salami, and all he needed to do was prepare the food and eat it. But he could not decide which food item to focus on first! After two days of being unable to decide what to eat, he finally called a friend, who decided for him.

This book is full of strange and unexpected problems such as this, and Dr. Elliot wrote it in a way that is highly intelligent and highly accessible. You’ll learn a great amount about processes that your brain is doing without you even needing to think about them. Dr. Elliot eventually recovers, and the way he approaches doing this is by itself, fascinating. But I won’t ruin it for you!

3) My Lobotomy

This book was written by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming. Howard Dully is one of the last surviving people who had a procedure called a lobotomy.

Brain surgery (or “psychosurgery”) is inherently terrifying. The brain is what makes consciousness and “humanness” possible, and the fact that it can be operated on with a scalpel and taken away from us is disturbing in a way beyond all other surgical procedures. But the lobotomy was a different beast altogether.

The lobotomy, historically called a leucotomy, was a procedure wherein the frontal lobes of a person’s brain were intentionally damaged. The idea was that because the frontal lobes influence a person’s behavior, they could change those people with behavioral problems for the better by operating on that part of the brain. And changed they were, but not for the better.

Howard Dully was just 12 years old at the time of his lobotomy in the year 1960. He received the procedure from Walter Freeman, the most famous of the doctors that would perform the procedure. Dully shares notes from the meetings leading up to the surgery, and notes from the procedure itself, revealing the heartbreaking details of an abusive step-mother who wanted her step-son brain-damaged because of some mild behavior problems.

Ironically, the lobotomy probably produced even more behavioral problems, because the frontal lobes are the areas that allow people to resist impulsive actions. Additionally, Dully began having memory problems.

Throughout the book, Dully tells the story of his life, including the many difficulties he suffered following the lobotomy. They include stints in asylums and juvenile detention centers, as well as problems with drugs and homelessness.

Were his problems with life and the law really just problems from the lobotomy? It’s hard to say for sure, but at least Dully gets a happy ending in the conclusion of this book.

4) Prognosis

This book was written by Sarah Vallance, PhD. She was thrown off of a horse and into a world where a blow to the head made everything from writing, to relationships, to work, exceedingly difficult.

At the time of her accident, she was in graduate school and working on her dissertation in order to receive her PhD in government and public administration. Following the accident, she was unable to comprehend the parts of the dissertation that she had written so far, as she describes in a heart-breaking scene where she opens the now-mysterious documents on her computer.

One powerful scene that depicts the severity of her brain damage is the scene in which she describes attempting to read some journal articles. She flips through the pile on her desk that she had left there before the accident, unable to grasp even a single title page. Eventually, she tries something new, and begins copying over the words from the page onto a new page, carefully transcribing the words that she could not comprehend.

The relationships in this book are the highlight of the read, from her loving and heartbreaking relationships with her dogs, to her difficult mother, to the people she loves along the way. As you read, you’ll experience her newfound social problems, especially anger, and self-frustration.

As Dr. Vallance progresses through her degree, several high-paying jobs, and international trips, she is often told by those around her that they don’t see anything wrong with her, and that “You’re just making excuses…” But as the reader, you’ll get to see what they couldn’t see in the pages of this book, from the long months spent alone with her dogs, to the daily struggles with memory and slow cognitive functioning.

5) Ghost Boy

This book was written by Martin Pistorius, with Megan Lloyd Davies. Pistorius developed a mysterious degenerative neurological problem when he was a young boy, for which “no conclusive diagnosis was made.” He lost control of his muscles, and appeared to be in a “waking coma” at all times. This led to him spending his days in a care home, where it was assumed that he was not consciously experiencing life.

And based on Pistorius’ telling of his story, that seems to have been true at first. But then, after a few years of nothing, his consciousness began to re-emerge. Over the course of about three years, he became fully aware of everything that was happening to him, although he could not respond by moving or speaking in any notable pattern. It was a sort of locked-in syndrome, although an unusual case.

Eventually, one caretaker did notice that he was responding in subtle ways when spoken to. He was able to smile and move his head to some degree, but others assumed that those were mere reflexes and not consciously intended actions meant to communicate that someone was trapped inside. Using such movements and help from those around him, he began to experiment with using computer-assisted speech.

One of my favorite parts of this book is when Pistorius describes the process of him slowly regaining awareness of the fact that he was experiencing life. He describes it as “coming up for air” and a process where he “came back to life.”

In this book, he expresses countless frustrations with being unable to choose when he ate, when he bathed, and what television he watched. He describes the strange feelings that being able to ask for things he wanted using his computer stirred in him, as he was unfamiliar with expressing his own desires in a way that people understood.

In the short and powerful chapter called “The Real Me”, Pistorius sends a woman that he is interested in an email. In the email, he describes all of things that he cannot, sharing the details of all of the extra care that she would be signing up for if she were to love him. I won’t share exactly how that works out, but you’ll be happy to know that Pistorius gets a happy ending.

The Psychology of Speedrunning

There are groups of people that dedicate hundreds, if not thousands, of hours to achieve the fastest completion times in video games. Playing the same video game over and over and over again may sound like a lonely Sisyphean task to some observers. But the truth is that there are many positives to be found in the world of speedrunning.

Speedrunning has a simple definition: complete a chosen task in a video game as fast as possible. Making an attempt to do this is called a “speedrun” or, more simply, a “run.” Most commonly, this takes the form of beating the game start to finish, but each speedrunning community creates its own set of rules to govern their respective games. They also create different categories of runs for competition, much like Olympic running events with different running distances.

Speedrunners have found ways to transform single-player games into vibrant communities. This includes even games from decades ago that may otherwise be at risk for being forgotten. Chances are, someone out there has attempted to speedrun almost any game you can think of.

But beyond navigating the rules of the run and the limits of the game’s technology, the people who do this must also navigate the complexities of human psychology.

Negative Headspace

Much research has been dedicated to the psychological impacts of video games and other technology-heavy media such as internet usage. Research linking video games and the brain has investigated the impact of video games on cognitive abilities, such as task-switching and multitasking (Green & Seitz, 2015). Excessive video game use has also been linked to poorer school performance (Kantomaa et al., 2015).

But when it comes to negative impacts, perhaps the three biggest concerns are depression, anxiety, and social phobia.

Two speedrunners, interviewed for this piece, agreed that they have seen these mental health concerns among speedrunners in their communities.

Jcool114, a speedrunner known for his Super Mario Sunshine runs (among several other games), indicated that he knows “a good number of speedrunners who have struggled with depression and/or anxiety to a larger degree, and [does] not doubt that their gaming habits could have some level of correlation.”

Kap, a speedrunner who has previously held (and currently holds) world records in multiple games including Pikmin 2 and Astral Chain, expressed that he knows people that “do suffer from depression and speedrun” and indicated that they may be correlated. About social phobia, he added that “[if] someone is already averse to social interaction and suddenly they find out that they can compete without social interaction — I could see how that could potentially fuel a loop.”

How do you make an old video game new? Compete with others to play it as fast as possible. Shown are parts of the title screen animations for Pikmin 2 (2004) and Super Mario Sunshine (2002), both by Nintendo. Screen recording and illustration by Alexander R. Toftness.

How do you make an old video game new? Compete with others to play it as fast as possible. Shown are parts of the title screen animations for Pikmin 2 (2004) and Super Mario Sunshine (2002), both by Nintendo. Screen recording and illustration by Alexander R. Toftness.

Both speedrunners used the word correlation, and studies agree with them. Research often shows a correlation between large amounts of video game use and depression, anxiety, and social phobia. Importantly, however, experiencing these mental anguishes may also lead to video game use.

Longitudinal research, which followed groups of people over periods of time, has suggested that people who are already prone to these three types of mental disorder are drawn to video games — and that video games can create additional opportunities to experience depression, anxiety, and social phobia (Anderson et al., 2017; Gentile et al., 2011). This is the vicious cycle that you might expect to prey upon a person who spends large amounts of time engaged with the virtual world instead of the “real world”.

But what is often not taken into account are the complex ways that people who play video games are interacting with one another. Speedrunners experience the positive domains of community and competition, which certainly count as participation in the “real world”.

Community

The idea of a person who plays video games may bring to mind someone who is alone in their basement or bedroom, isolated from others. But this image is usually an inaccurate representation.

Most video game players report playing video games in social settings (Lenhart et al., 2008). Modern speedrunners often play in front of an audience. When attempting a speedrun, it is common for the attempt to be broadcast as live-streaming video on the internet, where interested people can watch the run progress in real time. Much as sporting events display high-intensity live action, powerful moments in speedrunning are built when speedrunning communities watch their favorite streamers get a run that is “on pace” for the world record, and try to maintain it through to the very end of the run without “choking.”

Speedrunning communities are essentially niche hobby clubs that meet almost entirely via the Internet. But despite the physical distance, the camaraderie that is built from struggling through a common challenge of pushing a video game to its limits strongly unites people.

“The group I’m in especially is very fun because we’re all trying to help each other. It could be a solo act, and everyone could just speedrun isolated in a cold basement — I think it’s nice to be able to talk to people,” said Kap, “Finding that camaraderie and finding that mutual understanding of other people is a very positive thing. Having a really good connection to a speedrunning community can make the experience more positive.”

The research agrees with Kap. The negative psychological aspects of video game usage such as social anxiety are less likely when levels of simultaneous online communication are high (Colder Carras et al., 2017), such as communication within speedrunning communities. The lesson seems to be that if you intend to play video games for long periods, you should find ways to connect with others.

And if you want concrete evidence that this sense of speedrunning community is a net positive for the world, look no further than an event called Games Done Quick. This event has been raising money for charity since 2010, and features speedrunners completing runs, races, and exhibition events in 24/7 livestreams in front of a global audience. The total amount of money that has been raised by Games Done Quick events as of May 2021 is around 31 million dollars, much of which has gone to cancer research.

Psychological research supports the idea that playing games can be affiliated with prosocial behavior, such as donating to charity. In studies where people were randomly assigned to play prosocial video games, in which helping behaviors are featured, participants that played such games were more likely to show prosocial behaviors in their own lives (Gentile et al., 2009). A large meta-analysis also showed this prosocial pattern after looking at the outcomes of nearly 100 studies (Greitemeyer & Mügge, 2014).

In sum, speedrunning can lead to both community and charity where like-minded people band together to overcome whatever obstacles are in front of them.

Competition and Cooperation

Another enormous psychological factor in speedrunning is the competition.

“I really enjoy being able to constantly push myself into getting better and mastering the games I play and love. I feel that I view the activity similarly to how many would view their participation in traditional sports,” said Jcool.

“I always think about it like track and field,” said Kap, “Even if you’re in a room [by yourself], you’re still putting your times on a leaderboard, you’re comparing yourself to others. Like running and other sports it’s also focused on self-improvement. What do I need to do to do this same thing better?”

Existing in loosely connected communities that each focus on their own specific video game, speedrunners compete in three distinct ways. They compete with others, submitting their achieved times with video proof to online leaderboards displaying the champions of each distinct category. They compete with themselves, always working towards a faster completion time. They also compete with the game itself, mastering its idiosyncrasies and glitches and button inputs with such precision as to allow squeezing precious seconds out of the ever-improving world records.

As in track and field events like long-jumping, these three different levels of competition can be thought of in terms of ego goals and task goals (e.g., Chin et al., 2012). Ego goals are about comparing yourself to others. In contrast, task goals are about improving your own skills, competence, and mastery, such as playing as fast as you can, regardless of your position on the leaderboard. Importantly, ego and task goals are correlated (Lochbaum et al., 2016). This means that someone who wants to be the best at the game likely also wants to see the game beaten as fast as possible even if they aren’t in first place on the leaderboard. Also interestingly, even if someone already has the fastest time, the existence of those task goals such as seeing how fast the community can beat the game as a team may drive them to continue to improve.

Intense high-skill competition brings with it the psychological phenomenon of flow. Flow is the psychological feeling of optimal experience that comes from being completely engaged in a difficult activity for which your skill level is also high, and is typically related to sports or creative arts (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

Jcool explained that “I have definitely had a number of experiences where I found myself deeply engaged and focused with high skill in speedruns, and would say that some of my personal bests I’ve achieved have had this experience involved to some extent.”

Kap said that “for me it’s like I just sort of let my brain do the work and I’m not overthinking what I’m doing. I think that’s what I’d consider a flow. I’m not thinking too much about the decisions I’m making, I’m just: ‘I’m going to do this, and this, and this.’ And it’s fast! And it works. But letting your muscle memory and letting your natural instinct go, I would consider that a flow. And I think I definitely feel that a lot.”

And this focused competition brings with it a surprising amount of cooperation.

The fact that this is partially a team sport allows for the participation of many people behind the scenes who do important work in glitch-hunting, theory testing, and moderation tasks. Even if they aren’t the ones with their names at the top of the leaderboard, they are still winning every time the community breaks a “barrier” such as when Super Mario Odyssey was beaten in less than an hour for the first time in March of 2019.

Because speedrunners focus on beating the same game, knowledge from other speedrunners is indispensable when it comes to discovering tricks to make the runs faster. The fastest run that a speedrunner has is made up of many small pieces that were discovered, tested, and shared by others in the community, sometimes earning the tricks nicknames after the person who discovered them.

One example of this is a difficult trick called “Honey Skip” in Super Mario Sunshine, named after a player that goes by Honey. In contrast, people who discover new speedrunning techniques and then hide them are vilified by the community.

While there isn’t any specific research yet on the competitive elements of speedrunning communities, there is general research that has examined the differences between cooperative and competitive video gaming. Psychological research seems to agree that cooperative gameplay has some positive outcomes, including building friendships (Waddell & Peng, 2014) and the promotion of overall enjoyment (McGloin et al., 2016).

Your Brain on Speedruns

Additional research has suggested that video games can be beneficial to a person’s resilience to failure, problem-solving, and creativity (Granic, Lobel, & Engels, 2014). I asked for the speedrunners thoughts on this.

Jcool felt that his resilience to failure has benefitted from speedrunning. “I find myself able to bounce back in difficult situations better than many as well as push onward when things are tough, especially in situations dealing with things I am passionate about,” said Jcool.

Kap agreed that resiliency comes with the territory. “If there isn’t failure, there won’t be success. To be good at any competition you need to be resilient. And thus, to be good at speedrunning, you need to be resilient,” said Kap.

Kap emphasized that problem-solving and creativity were major components of speedrunning. “There’s many different ways of solving a problem, but what’s the fastest way of solving the problem? And once you’ve done the fastest way, how do you know it’s the fastest way?”

So, while speedrunning may seem like a strange activity from the outside, it has a lot to give its participants. But what about the research into the negative impacts of excessive video gaming?

Kap explains that there are ways of going about speedrunning the wrong way. “Some people who are very results-oriented put in lots of time and effort and aren’t happy with what they see. And that can lead to sadness and ennui. If they have depressive tendencies, that sadness can turn into something more. Speedrunning doesn’t cause depression because it’s a video game, but because speedrunning is a pursuit to be skilled — albeit at a video game,” Kap said.

He continued, giving a specific example about a bad way to approach speedrunning: “If a thirteen-year-old was like: ‘I’m going to speedrun and I’m going to get world record and I’m going to spend 40 hours a week until I get world record,’ I would say that that’s very bad. But I think it’d be the same way if a young kid in high school was like: ‘I’m going to go pro in basketball and I’m not going to worry about my studies.’ I think we’re very good at chastising children who are like that who don’t care about school and just want to play sports for a living. Unless of course, they’re that good. And it’s the same way in video games. Unless you’re Ninja who’s making six figures playing video games, you can’t not be in school or have a job. I think that just like how you should chastise people who want to not do school and do get rich stuff or sports, just like we dissuade them, I think we should actively dissuade people from doing that with video games,” said Kap, “I think people go too far maybe, in their studies: ‘Kids shouldn’t play video games because it negatively affects their grades’ but I would say ‘Everything in moderation’. A nuanced look at all of this is really important.”

And after a nuanced look into the world of speedrunning, there is a lot more to it than playing the same game over and over and over.

Special thanks to the speedrunners from Twitch streams Jcool114 and KapKapRevenge for agreeing to be interviewed for this piece.

Article updated on May 2nd, 2021

References

Anderson, E. L., Steen, E., & Stavropoulos, V. (2017). Internet use and problematic internet use: A systematic review of longitudinal research trends in adolescence and emergent adulthood. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 22(4), 430–454. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2016.1227716

Chin, N. S., Khoo, S., & Low, W. Y. (2012). Self-determination and goal orientation in track and field. Journal of Human Kinetics, 33(1), 151–161. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10078-012-0054-0

Colder Carras, M., Van Rooij, A. J., Van de Mheen, D., Musci, R., Xue, Q. L., & Mendelson, T. (2017). Video gaming in a hyperconnected world: A cross-sectional study of heavy gaming, problematic gaming symptoms, and online socializing in adolescents. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 472–479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.060

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal performance. Harper.

Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A. R., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens, video games, and civics: Teens’ gaming experiences are diverse and include significant social interaction and civic engagement. Pew Internet & American life project. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED525058

Gentile, D. A., Anderson, C. A., Yukawa, S., Ihori, N., Saleem, M., Ming, L. K., Shibuya, A., Liau, A. K., Khoo, A., Bushman, B. J., Rowell Huesmann, L., & Sakamoto, A. (2009). The effects of prosocial video games on prosocial behaviors: International evidence from correlational, longitudinal, and experimental studies. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35(6), 752–763. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209333045

Gentile, D. A., Choo, H., Liau, A., Sim, T., Li, D., Fung, D., & Khoo, A. (2011). Pathological video game use among youths: A two-year longitudinal study. Pediatrics, 127(2), e319–e329. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2010-1353

Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. M. E. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69(1), 66–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034857

Green, C. S., & Seitz, A. R. (2015). The impacts of video games on cognition (And how the government can guide the industry). Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2(1), 101–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732215601121

Greitemeyer, T., & Mügge, D. O. (2014). Video games do affect social outcomes: A meta-analytic review of the effects of violent and prosocial video game play. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(5), 578–589. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213520459

Kantomaa, M. T., Stamatakis, E., Kankaanpää, A., Kajantie, E., Taanila, A., & Tammelin, T. (2015). Associations of physical activity and sedentary behavior with adolescent academic achievement. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 26(3), n/a — n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12203

Lochbaum, M., Kazak Çetinkalp, Z., Graham, K. A., Wright, T., & Zazo, R. (2016). Task and ego goal orientations in competitive sport: A quantitative review of the literature from 1989 to 2016. Kinesiology, 48(1), 3–29. https://doi.org/10.26582/k.48.1.14

McGloin, R., Hull, K. S., & Christensen, J. L. (2016). The social implications of casual online gaming: Examining the effects of competitive setting and performance outcome on player perceptions. Computers in Human Behavior, 59, 173–181. https://10.1016/j.chb.2016.02.022

Waddell, J. C., & Peng, W. (2014). Does it matter with whom you slay? The effects of competition, cooperation and relationship type among video game players. Computers in Human Behavior, 38, 331–338. https://10.1016/j.chb.2014.06.017

What women really REALLY want

There is no shortage of articles on the internet that attempt to explain what women are looking for in relationships. But there are also many articles that purport to list what a woman is REALLY looking for, as if there were some deep and forbidden knowledge that only clickbait can provide.

Here, I have taken 15 list-based articles from 15 different websites and compared their entries with the power of a spreadsheet. When the lists are put on the same page, some common threads of advice pop out. In other words, I am answering the question: what do women really REALLY want? Here are the top 8 common themes.

Oh hey, a woman! I wonder what she wants. (Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash)

Oh hey, a woman! I wonder what she wants. (Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash)

The research method

For this project, I used a highly technical method called a “Google search”, looking for listicles (list-based articles) that featured the word “really” in some prominent way. The spreadsheet used for this project is available here: LINK

Here are a few notes before we get to the boiled-down list entries:

First, the articles are written for an audience of men. The articles generally make the assumption that the titular women are looking to start or improve relationships with a man. This, of course, assumes that the women fit into certain relationship statuses and certain categories of attraction (e.g., heterosexual, or otherwise potentially interested in the man reading the article). These assumptions are not the correct assumptions for everyone.

Second, the articles were mostly written by non-experts — people without higher education — although some were written by experts with degrees. This means that some of the lists were written off of the top of the author’s head (“Oh, I saw a woman once!”), while others were actually based on research. I have marked which articles are which in the spreadsheet. And in case you’re curious, I’m part of the latter category, although my advanced degree has nothing to do with relationships specifically. However, before publishing, I did show this article to a researcher with an advanced degree in a more relevant subject, and to my fiancee. They also happen to be the same person.

Third, this meta-article isn’t a scientific study, because I used my own judgment when it came to deciding what to include and how to categorize. There were some weird twists and turns deep in the Google search results. For example, multiple lists turned out to be paid advertisements for a brand of watch. One list put “Commit to Jesus” as the capstone, beyond “Show that your relationship is a priority” — so that list didn’t make it into the spreadsheet. As such, this list should not be taken more seriously scientifically than any of the component lists that I Frankensteined into this glorious creature that you read before you.

Okay, now let’s look at…

What women really REALLY want from men.

1. Communication/Listening Skills

By FAR the most common theme in these lists was the theme of effective and frequent communication. You know how when you talk to a friend about how you should approach a relationship problem, and they inevitably tell you that you need to “talk to her”? Yeah, that.

Say some of the things that you are thinking out loud, and participate in interesting discussions together. Share events from your life in conversation, even on days when it feels like nothing truly spectacular happened. Give opinions when wanted by the other person; even if you don’t feel strongly one way or the other, making an effort to weigh in on the options makes the other person feel valued. And importantly, attempt to be on the same page when it comes to the rules of the relationship by talking about them.

More specific than communication was the desire for listening skills: the ability to know when to not talk and just listen. Being able to tell when a partner in a relationship is looking for advice, versus when they are just looking to vent, is a valuable skill. In other words, have you considered talking to women and listening to what they independently have to say about what they want instead of reading articles about what women in general want?

2. Integrity

What does integrity mean? It’s a combination of honesty, being trustworthy, and taking responsibility in situations that call for it. A woman needs to be cautious about trusting a man until he earns that trust, because some of us are ax murderers, and she doesn't know which ones.

Having moral principles and keeping promises are the bedrock of any good relationship, romantic or not. For example (and this sounds obvious when you say it out loud) if you say that you are going to do something, then you need to actually do that thing.

Knowing that a man will take predictable and timely actions with no need for constant reminders improves her life in many ways. It allows for her to share responsibilities that a life partnership inevitably brings about, whether it is sharing property, caring for the lives of others, or even making financial decisions. Even small things like showing up on time for events (read: before the event starts) can mean a lot when it comes to impressions of integrity.

3. Show Love

In a romantic relationship, women want to know that they are loved. Sure, you can say “I love you” in thousands of different words, but actions taken are louder and more believable and will make her feel much more secure and wanted. Especially if the actions taken are specific to her own unique self, and not generic romantic gestures. Flowers are good, but can you remember that she prefers house plants because they won't wilt and die? Chocolate is fine, but can you take the hint that sometimes she needs to fill up a desk drawer with KitKats, and she can’t do that with one of those heart-shaped boxes?

Showing love through actions taken doesn't need to be expensive (although it certainly can be). Combine this with listening skills to discover what she wants and likes, and then find ways to bring her closer to those things or at least show her that you were paying attention when she said it. For example, when you get her a gift, use it as an opportunity to show that you remember something about her that she shared with you. What weird dreams has she had lately? What’s something that she hasn’t done in forever that she used to love? Where’s a place that she’s never been to but would love to go (read: don’t just kidnap her and take her there, there’s a process here)?

4. Give Her Your Time

This one is about as straightforward as it can get. Spend time together, both when the activity is enjoyable and when it isn’t, like when doing chores. If you’re busy people (and who isn’t) you can schedule some small things here and there, like taking walks, watching a movie, or having a new experience together. When you schedule big things like trips or events, show her that you’ve thought about the little details like weather, scheduling, and that extra tube of chapstick in your car because they are very easy to accidentally leave somewhere.

Mundane events like cleaning up after cooking can be made into enjoyable moments if you can joke around together or talk about what you’re thinking with each other — instead of declaring that it is one person’s “turn” to clean up today. If you walk in on her completing a chore, join in for a few minutes and touch base with her. It won’t cost you anything but time, and it will mean a lot to her. Show her that you are choosing to spend time with her, and make what would otherwise be super boring “filler” time in her life into meaningful inside jokes, stories, and demonstrations of teamwork.

You can still have time to yourself after sharing some with her; you don't need to spend every single moment together. Be honest about your needs when it comes to scheduling, such as if you need some alone time or time with friends. But nothing compares to the gift of time when you want to show someone that you do truly care about them. Especially if you use that time to cook for them.

5. Empathy

Empathy is the ability to feel and understand other people’s feelings, and to act in a way that is mindful of those feelings. It can be a visceral response, like feeling pain when you see someone suffering, or an action-y type response, like donating money to charity. It shows a complex mind that can consider the perspectives of others, and a capacity for caring about the welfare of others.

Besides adopting every homeless small animal in your city, there are other ways to show that you possess empathy. For example, when you disagree with someone, you can show that you’re capable of understanding where they are coming from and why they think differently than you. When discussing a sad event, showing the fact that it makes you feel sad too is a powerful form of communication.

In a long-term relationship, the two of you will probably interact with many people, and if the two of you work together to try and understand how other people are thinking and feeling, you’ll be able to be on the same page while you navigate those social obstacles together. Some of those interactions, such as with young people and animals, can be great opportunities to show empathy and other positive skills like patience. Other interactions are great opportunities to show that you can take the perspective of others, like when you get cut off by a speeding car on the freeway. Remarking that “he must be speeding to the hospital to see his pregnant wife” is probably more positive than describing exactly which of your golf clubs you are going to beat that guy about the balls with.

6. Have Goals

A person who thinks about the future and can delay gratification instead of giving in to pleasure in the immediate moment is material for a great long-term relationship. If it’s a short term relationship that you are going for, it’s probably fine if your goal is to see exactly how much pleasure you can cram into one evening, but that approach doesn’t exactly scream “stability.”

Passion for the things you do in life is attractive, and the discipline and intelligence needed to set and achieve realistic goals are as well. Additionally, it is good to have goals because women do too. If these lists weren’t specific to romantic relationships, “to achieve her goals” would belong at the top of the list of what women want.

When both members of a couple have interests and goals in their lives, they give each other additional drive to pursue and achieve those goals. It’s like being a member of a team, even if the goals don’t align perfectly. Giving validation to each other's goals is an excellent way to build a trusting and mutually beneficial bond with each other.

7. A Man who takes Care with his Looks

Caring about your looks is different than being an attractive person. Even a man who isn’t automatically a looker can still show the woman in his life that he is taking steps to try and look his best. There are always a few things here and there that a guy can do to spruce himself up, whether it’s changing the way he wears his hair, switching to separate shampoo and conditioners instead of 2-in-1, or taking a bit of extra time in the morning to groom his facial hair — maybe even including his eyebrows. I didn’t mean for all three of those examples to be about hair, and yet here we are.

Trying to look good demonstrates that he wants to show the best possible side of the relationship off to the world. Optics are important to a woman, and for good reason: they are closely linked to social status. The man she dates influences her reputation. If she dates a slob, then that reflects on her that she is a slob or is okay with messiness.

Additionally, it is worth keeping in mind that looks are subjective. Get her opinion when you are considering buying new clothing or accessories. You don’t need to throw out your old wardrobe, but involving her in trying to make you look good shows that you value her opinions — and who knows? Maybe she’ll end up more willing to dress up in the way that you want her to, too.

8. It’s Not JUST about Sex

Being “giving with sex” and being sexually “passionate” both showed up on multiple lists, but what tops even those ideas is the idea that the man is willing to participate in activities that have nothing to do with sex. Or, that he’ll enjoy activities that slowly lead up to sex in a romantic (and patient) way.

What men need to keep in mind when it comes to sex and women is that sex is kinda sorta horrifying when you think about it. It’s more dangerous for women than it is for men, and not just for the aforementioned potential ax murderer reason. Trusting another human to put things inside of you can be really uncomfortable and weird, okay? Not to mention the navigation of the potential aggressiveness of your partner, the emotions that come with oxytocin’s effects in the brain, and the biological fact that women tend to be smaller and weaker in muscular strength than men. And we haven’t even mentioned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections and the fact that a lot of men don’t seem to care that much about whether a woman enjoys herself during sex.

That’s a lot of things to potentially worry about. So sometimes, taking sex off of the table for the evening or making sure to really take time to warm up and go at it slowly can make a woman relax and enjoy the relationship a hell of a lot more.

But that doesn't mean that consensual crazy break-the-bed sex isn't important! According to the lists, there is a place in a woman’s fantasy relationship for aggressive and assertive sex, but not as an all-the-time thing. In a long-term relationship, the slow romantic stuff should outshine the animalistic passion — although the raw passion should definitely happen if both are in the mood for it.

Runner-ups:

Mentioned in many of the articles, but not enough to make this list: Humor, Intelligence, People Skills, Awareness, Partnership, Stability, and Vulnerability.

The Takeaway

I’m going to end by saying the same thing that was said to me in a completely random fashion by the cashier at the video game shop when I was a young teenager browsing the shelves. He was talking to some other adults behind the counter, and then suddenly he turned and looked at me and said “Always respect women, kid. Before anything else, they are people. Women are people, not some kind of crazy alien. You got that, kid?”

I don't remember what I said in reply, but I think I just nodded. I still remember that moment because it was something that had never really been stated so obviously to me before.

But even if it should be obvious, it goes against what men are taught from media and other men. That women are irreconcilably different. That they are a nearly impenetrable mystery that you will have to work at your entire life in order to penetrate (pun intended). That there are secrets to women whispered only by internet articles.

But as it turns out, they are people — people who have been telling men what they want all along. To be treated like an individual person with unique interests and values. And how could a list possibly capture that?

How to Survive them graduate school prelims, quals, and comps.

Because we grad students are such cool people with our very own lingo, you probably will rarely hear the hardest test in academia referred to by its full name. The preliminary, qualifying, or comprehensive exam is a “right-of-passage” for graduate students to prove that they can stuff enough information into their brains to appear to be an “expert” on their topic of study. If you’re unlucky (and you probably are), you might also get to prove that you can stuff information into your brain that has nothing to do with your area of desired expertise. I’m (barely) on the other side of my PhD qualification exam now, and here’s an actual picture of the state of my brain:

Fun fact: while attempting to misspell the word brain, I accidentally misspelled the misspelling, resulting in an original filename of “Brina not found”

Fun fact: while attempting to misspell the word brain, I accidentally misspelled the misspelling, resulting in an original filename of “Brina not found”

But at least it’s over. Looking back on the worst summer ever, one spent indoors hunched over musty books and trusty PDFs, there is fortunately some wisdom to be gleaned for those who are currently, or considering, walking this path to prelims. Here’s what I’ve learned from talking with other grad students and reading about the experiences of others.

1) Studying properly for prelims is going to feel like over-studying, especially once the test is over.

One of the prevailing thoughts among the grad students following the test was: “I can’t believe that topic X wasn’t part of the exam! I spent DAYS working through that topic! What I am supposed to do with all of these references I memorized?”

I had it easy compared to some of my grad school friends. I am able to fit my pile of assigned readings on a single shelf in my office now that everything is all said and done. They include four textbooks, a set of handwritten notes in a single 90-page notebook, and somewhere around fifty PDFs that I printed out because highlighting things by hand felt more like learning than digital highlighting. And also, paper reminds me of trees, so it was almost like going outdoors, which I definitely did not do much of this summer while studying.

Take my fitbit stats for example. Back in June, before I had been given all of my reading list, I had eleven days where I had over 10,000 steps/day. From July 1st all the way up to the exam day on August 15th, I had ONE day where I got over 10,000 steps… and it was on July 1st! Although, to be fair, there were a few days where I let my fitbit battery die completely. Just like my hopes and dreams.

Now I’m not saying that all of the time I normally spent exercising directly translated into studying, but all of that time DID at least directly transfer into me thinking about how I should be studying or feeling guilty that I wasn’t studying.

Pretty much every student I talked to mentioned that in the end, they felt as if they had over-studied for the exam. But here’s the thing: You kind of have to. You don’t know which topics will come up on the exam, so you have to be broad in your reading. It’s going to feel like having read up on certain topics is entirely useless—but it’s in the same way that a fire extinguisher is useless when there aren’t any fires. You’ll be happy to know that the fusiform face area was named in 1997 if a question calls for it, but otherwise, just be thankful that there wasn’t a fire.

2) Apathy is normal, but don’t embrace it.

“What was the point of that?” was probably the most prevalent feeling following the exam. It was also, notably, a common feeling during the months leading up to the exam. “Why are we doing this?” is a question that I cannot answer.

And neither can anyone else, it seems.

Adam Ruben (PhD!) writes in his book Surviving Your Stupid Stupid Decision to go to Grad School that “It is a stupid, stupid test.”

Amy Yu, an immunology graduate student at the University of Michigan’s Rackham Graduate School, writes that “It’s like the hazing experience everyone goes through to become a true graduate student.”

According to professor Pete L. Clark from the University of Georgia, some qualification exams started out as a way to weed people out of graduate programs, but today, they don’t really serve that purpose anymore because people dropping out of graduate programs looks bad for the school in the modern statistics that they use. Instead, the tests may serve “diagnostic purposes” but there is rarely consequences for failing them other than needing to retake them.

I realize that none of that is a particularly great motivator. But if you’ve made it this far into grad school, you probably have at least some intrinsic motivation for learning to fall back on. Right? RIGHT?!

We can try to laugh at the apathy that comes from feeling like studying for this test is a waste of time, but it’s something that is painful to dwell on, so let’s move on.

3) Your friends and family can sympathize, but they can’t empathize.

Because you are in grad school, you probably don’t get to see your family and friends as much as you would like to anyway. But in the study period leading up to prelims, this becomes even more true. I missed a family funeral for one of my relatives because it occurred in the week leading up to the exam. And while my family might “understand” why I couldn’t be there, they’ll never be able to fully realize how much this whole thing sucked without going through it.

Sympathy is when you share a feeling with another person, like the sadness that comes being distant from the people that you love. Empathy, on the other hand, is rarer, and comes from being able to put yourself into another person’s shoes. Empathy for the grad student studying for quals is impossible without also being a grad student studying for quals. Fortunately for me, I didn’t have to do it alone. My significant other also spent her summer cooped up and reading. So, at least we got through it together.

As for my friends and family, the best that I could do was tell them ahead of time what was happening (lots of incoming stress, guys), keep them semi-regularly updated as it was happening (this week sucked too, thank you for understanding why I couldn’t be there), and try to make it up to them afterwards (by playing some co-op Stardew Valley and some extra long phone calls, how else?).

4) Entirely unproductive days are common and perhaps normal, but please fight against them.

It’s a great thing to try and plan ahead for your reading and practice schedule in the months leading up to the exam. Divide the reading list, talk to yourself in the mirror each morning, and so on. But what’s IMPOSSIBLE as we have discovered is that you can’t predict how long any one particular task is going to take.

Just because a particular PDF is a certain number of pages long, doesn’t mean you’ll have any idea how long it will take to capture the ideas within. There were days where I spent hours failing to understand something beyond occasionally highlighting a paragraph. Now that felt like wasted time. It’s hard to get motivated on any particular day of studying when you can’t think of a reason that Asch (1935) will ever be useful in your future career or studies.

I wish I had better advice about how to properly get started on any particular full day of studying, nut here’s the best that I’ve got: maintain a reasonable degree of hygiene, dress in actual clothing as if you were going to a job, and please don;t forget to occasionally stand up and walk around, even if it’s just to the kitchen to select a granola bar from your pile of lazy no-prep food. For those who want a better lifestyle while studying, make sure to plan occasional days where you see other living humans besides yourself in the mirror. Watching videos of other people playing board games on YouTube can only get you so far, you guys.

In the end, you will probably have a few regrets about how you spent your time leading up to the exam. That’s okay. And remember: barely passing is still passing.

An Ending Paragraph

For those of you who have taken your exams, what do you remember? For those of you who haven’t yet, why aren’t you studying? Let me know in the comments below.

The Goals for 2019

I began 2019 by writing down a few goals:

To release 24 or more videos in 2019.

To release a minimum of one video per month.

To release at least one 15-minute or longer video.

To release at least four 4-minute or shorter videos.

To attend Vidcon in July.

To finish my masters degree.

To publish at least four paid written articles.

…and it looks like I’m on track so far!

The Joy of Old Library Books

I can’t be the only person who gets sheer joy out of discovering ancient library books. The ones that are tucked away in the basement where nobody even remembers them. The ones that you have to open without breathing because it could crumble into dust at any minute. The ones with the flowerly language that fills a beautiful minute with what could have just taken a few seconds. The ones that you absuolutely cannot believe they allow you to check out and just stuff into your backback and walk out of there. It’s like being an art theif. It’s like being atime traveller.

I’m holding right now an original copy of “The DIagnosis of Stupor and Coma” by Plum and Posner. This book changed the world so much that they released many versions of it. But this is the first version. I don’t know how many copies of this book exist anymore, but one of them is right here with me. With a spine that has seen better days. With call numbers from the library written directly on the book’s cover. WIth a little slip of paper showing that someone checked this book out on Novemeber 7th, 1984. And on February 19th of 2006. And many other dates, but none anywhere recent. Who were those people? Did they find as much joy as I did in carefully turning the pages?

Someone wrote all over chapter one. Possibly multiple someones because there were several writing utensils used. They wrote the word “Evidence” as if at long last they had found what they were looking for. They underlined some passages in red pen, probably never realizing some day I would be judging them.

This book has a story unique to this volume and a story unique to the physical book itself. Sure, this is where the term “locked-in syndrome” was invented, but to whose eyes did that term flow? Who read it and agreed? Who read it and scoffed?

If I weren’t so conscientious, maybe I’d leave a note in this book for the next person who comes along someday. But this will suffice.

Thoughts on "The Art of Saving Relics"

I've just read the Scientific American story by Sarah Everts called "The Art of Saving Relics" and I found it to be the sort of great science writing that brings up an issue in a way not normally considered. Normally, when we think about the degradation of plastic over time, we think about what a shame it is that it doesn't break down faster. That conservation perspective, of watching plastic fill up our oceans and landfills, is turned on its head by this article which pitches a different kind of conservation related to plastics -- the kind where a museum is fighting to preserve plastics.

The examples given of the objects that need preserving are quite iconic: the acrylic paintings of Warhol, the spacesuits from the original moon landings, and so on. The article tells the stories about the discovery that these plastic treasures are degrading, and the efforts taken to try and find methods to detect the problems and solve them. The descriptions of leaking fumes and discoloration assist the reader in realizing what the museum is up against. Especially compelling to me the decay of old film -- where even digitizing the content is not the same as preserving the original.

This article makes me wonder what else is impermanent that we take for granted today. What else will crumble over time until only the written descriptions remain?

I recommend the article, it is some good stuff.

The Subjective Grade -- Do Teachers Give "Fair" Grades?

If you think that your instructor is giving you more or fewer points than you feel that you earned on an assignment -- you may be right.

I work as a Teaching Assistant (TA), and in my years of grad school (as well as occasionally during my work as an undergrad) I sometimes need to grade the work of students. Generally, I enjoy it, but depending on the type of grading needed, it can also drive me crazy.

I've been in many types of grading situations. I have been given complete autonomy over grading some assignments. I have had instructors tell me that I am grading too strictly. I have had other instructors tell me that I am grading too leniently. I have read essays out loud to a blind instructor who then told me what to write and how to grade. I've placed exams into a mystical magical grading machine and had the decision taken completely and literally out of my hands. And in all of these cases, except arguably the last one, there is a frustrating amount of subjectivity in the grades assigned. In other words, room for points to be given that aren't deserved, and room for points to be taken away undeservedly.

It can be something as simple as how bad the student's handwriting is, which determines how far into the essay question the grader can get without becoming frustrated. It can depend on what order they grade the papers in, depending on whether they begin to feel more or less lenient at the tail end of a day of grading. It can, of course, depend on the relationship that is built with a student. It can even depend on how much time is given to complete the assignment of grading the assignments.

Subjective grading can be reduced somewhat by using "blind" grading procedures, where the grader doesn't know to whom the work belongs. Another way to reduce subjective grading is by using a grading rubric that is both thorough but also practical to apply. But at the end of the day, the grade given is to some degree up to chance.

Maybe that's a good thing when the system would give an undeserved grade and the grader can intervene to prevent injustice from the cold hard numbers. But more often than not, the subjectivity of grades seems to be a disservice to students.

What do you think? Is blind grading too impersonal? Do you find subjective grading useful for rewarding students who deserve it?

The Oldest Opinion Polls

I'm working on helping a collection of students create opinion polls for a research methods class, and it got me wondering how opinion polls (public surveys) even came to be in the first place.

I imagined I would be able to find records of scientific opinion polls from Ancient Civilizations, such as Egypt, or maybe Greece, but I couldn't find such a thing. According to what I could find, back in older times, people known for thinking (such as Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau) apparently mostly considered public opinion to be a force beyond measurement, sort of like an emergent property where the whole was more than the sum of the parts.

It wasn't until the mid 1700s that the term "public opinion" even began common use! France was one of the first countries to start using the term, but did not have a scientific approach to measuring it. The first official straw polls of public political opinions probably didn't show up until the 1800s. The United States had a small one in 1824 regarding Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, but since there was no effective way to get a massive amount of people to respond to the survey, it only garnered roughly 500 responses.

Today, you can't get away from the things, and as someone who has studied the design of surveys, many of them aren't even being conducted effectively or fairly in the first place. Marketing teams could seriously benefit from learning how to write questions that aren't loaded, leading, or double-barreled. There are lots of ways to write a bad survey, and much fewer ways to write a good one.

Sources:

Erikson, R. S., & Tedin, K. L. (2015). American public opinion: Its origins, content and impact. Routledge.

Madonna, G., & Young, M. (2002). The First Political Poll. Retrieved from: https://www.fandm.edu/uploads/files/271296109834777015-the-first-political-poll-6-18-2002.pdf

Feeling Small

The YouTube channel is doing better than ever. ARTexplains Science and History is reaching more people for more minutes with more videos. But because YouTube is changing the rules about monetization, that is all going to become much less rewarding soon. Unless I can make some serious leaps in watch time in the next three weeks or so, I go back to being a non-partner, which means I won't get paid for my hard work on those videos -- some of which took me months of research and planning.

The good news, I suppose, is that this is really kicking me in the rear to work harder. In the past week, I have been staying up late and putting in long hours to try and figure this out. I've created a new channel introduction video, a satire video on the demonetization problem, two new content videos, new channel art, new merchandise, a better website... the list goes on and on. So maybe this has been a blessing in disguise, a nice little fire under my butt to wake me up to the possibilities. It still burns, though.

A Lack of Imagination -- Aphantasia

As a cognitive psychologist, I spend a lot of time thinking about how the brain works. It was shocking, then, when I recently learned that there is something in my brain that doesn't work. Specifically, that I am extremely lacking in my ability to generate mental imagery, a condition called aphantasia.

The most incredible part is that I made it this far in my life without realizing that the way that people describe mentally imagining (e.g., scenery, colors, memories, etc.) is a literal visual experience. I'm not sure how it hadn't occurred to me previously that the way that I mentally list things such as the colors of objects or events that happened is not the "normal" way of accomplishing these tasks. Apparently, because the experience of these mental states (moving pictures or lists of events for memories, for example) is a very subjective thing (perhaps even classifiable as a type of qualia), discovering that the way that you do it is different from other people takes some seriously frustrating discussion.

For me, it happened during a graduate course. We were discussing mental rotation, mental "zooming in", and other cognitive tasks such as imagining colors. I became increasingly uncomfortable. Eventually, I interrupted the discussion to ask some questions along the lines of "But you can't really imagine colors, can you?" and "Surely this is all metaphorical, like, imagining traits of colors?" and "You actually see where something is in space when you imagine it?". But no, it turns out, as indicated by my lifelong navigation troubles, that when people claim to be imagining mental maps of spaces that they were accomplishing something that I had never quite learned to do.

This discovery led to me feeling really weird for a couple of days, and several discussions with friends as we tried to piece together how it is that I accomplish tasks that the average person uses mental imagery for. I also found out, now that I was paying attention, that my ability to use mental imagery isn't completely absent, just very impoverished. For example, when I am tired (e.g., just waking up) or asleep, I can do some basic visual imagining like other people apparently always can. I also believe that my abilities are improving, slightly, through exercising them -- whenever I walk through a building these days, I do my best to imagine what the map looks like. It takes a serious level of focus.

If you are interested in reading more about this, there are some recent articles such as this one: https://www.livescience.com/61183-what-is-aphantasia.html

Or check out this video from SciShow that explains how recent the naming of this condition was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpK6ZJea9fk

Like a Cat on an Infinite Waterslide -- Shallow Interactions

I've always felt challenged when attempting to keep my small talk small by a part of me that doesn't enjoy the "good, you?" and "fine, yourself?" conventions. I find myself wrestling with a twirling, maddening, urge to say something else entirely. I'm not sure to what extent my experience with this overthinking of small interactions is shared by others, but my guess is that it's a common thing uncommonly expressed (except perhaps here, in the safety of the net).

A typical strategy I find myself using when confronted by an unexpected small conversation is to say the first thing that pops into my head, which is typically supremely silly. The other day it was "Oh, you know, same as usual, just fighting crime in a dangerous city." Another day it was "The work never ends, I'm like a cat on an infinite waterslide."

What's interesting here is that I'm not sure whether I am being more or less authentic than the person who responds to a shallow platitude with just another shallow platitude. Am I more, or less, distant from my speaking partner when I make a joke instead? I'm not sure.

What I can say for sure is that the sheer abundance of shallow interactions navigated in the span of a single day makes me crave the deeper ones. The ones that twist into dark tunnels under the surface until they suddenly pop back out into the light, like whitewater rapids. But those come around so much less frequently, and must be spent wisely -- which is perhaps why sometimes, I find myself attempting to convert shallows into deeps.

K, But Do You Ever Write Fiction, Though?

Asking a science communicator whether they have ever written fiction is kind of like asking a lion tamer if they've ever tried their routine with a hippopotamus. Yes, that would also be impressive, and yes, there are skillsets that would transfer, and yes I have entertained the idea and have also attended many hippopotamus shows that make me want to find my own hippo mouth to stick my neck into -- but no, it's not really my thing.

Young me tried out fiction quite a bit. I pray every night that every scrap of my old fanfiction has been wiped clean from the net. It had the same problem that a lot of teenage fanfiction had. Here is an actual excerpt: "The tunnel was very deep, and everyone was screaming and wailing as they went down." And another: "My crutch fell out from under me and I collapsed into a kneeling position, waiting for the end." I wrote some weapons grade angst back in the day.

And every once in awhile, I just let myself write some unhindered nonsense that usually ends up as a poem or crumpled up in the wastebasket or both. But, truth be told, there is enough interesting stuff going on in the world around us everyday that we don't need fiction nearly as much as we need non-fiction.

I think everybody goes through a phase in their life as they are growing up when they get downright depressed about reality and what it has to offer. Declaring in a frustrated and yet somehow monotone voice “This is lame. Everything’s lame.” Fortunately, later on in life (at least I hope so), something unusual and true tickles them in the brain in just the right way to spark up their wonder yet again. Maybe it’s the fact that we’re all held hostage on a space rock hurtling around a ridiculously hot ball of gas suspended by nothing but the as of yet poorly understood fabric of spacetime. Or maybe it’s a particular moment staring into the eyes of an animal and realizing the alienness that lies within, capable of staring back at you in just such an alien moment of non-understanding. Or maybe it’s the color of the sunset, and realizing that those colors aren’t in the sky but twirling and mixing at the back of your brain in an inexplicable way wherein red might not be red at all to anyone else you know.

And so, I think it is important to communicate wonder where we see it. And as appealing as it is to disappear into a land of fairies and magic, the true tales of amoeba and black holes are not some sort of poor substitute hocked by a secondary school teacher attempting to trick you into paying attention in class -- and in my opinion, these non-fictions are the more powerful for wonderment.

What do you think? What do fiction and non-fiction mean to you?